Getting Ahead: ‘A broken bar of soap’

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I am a person who likes to use a bar of soap in the shower. Others like the fancy soft soap from a dispenser, but I use, and have always used, the old-fashioned bar.

This probably goes back to my childhood as I would help my great grandmother make lye soap. Now that was a bar of soap that would separate the men from the boys. The nearest thing I have seen to it, that is still available today, is Lava soap. Use it on your hands but not on any soft skin; especially your face.

Recently I was in the shower using a bar of soap that was almost used up. When I was getting in the shower I saw that there wasn’t much left but I decided that I could get one more good cleaning out of it. Everything was going as usual and I could see that it was going to be enough to finish. Then something happened; that very thin bar of soap broke in half.

I have had a lifetime of dealing with bar soap so I knew how to deal with this situation. I just put the two pieces on top of one another, applied a little pressure to hold them together, and continued on with my shower. As I started, the broken pieces broke and I found myself looking down at my feet at some little broken pieces of what used to be a bar of soap. Half finished, I was wishing that I had not tried to get another shower out of a used up bar of soap.

Standing there soaking wet and half clean, I realized that life was very similar to what I had just experienced. I was going to have to get out of the shower and get a new bar of soap to finish.

There are seasons in our life that are very much like a bar of soap. They are just what we need for a time but after awhile they are used up and fall at our feet in broken pieces. Are we going to step out of the shower of life and get a new bar of soap, so to speak, or are we going to stand there looking at the broken pieces of our situation? Could it be that there is a brand new season of our life available to us and all we have to do is quit focusing on the broken pieces of what used to be, step out, and get it?

These and other life questions will be addressed Sunday morning as “The Gathering Place Family” meets in the Washington High School Library for Bible Study at 9:30 and in the gymnasium at 10 a.m. for our Pre-Service Connection where we enjoy coffee, juice and donuts. Our Worship Service and Children’s Church then begins at 10:30. Come at 7 p.m. and be part of our Wednesday night Bible Study and Children’s Ministry on the third floor above Trends at 120 W. Court St. in Washington C.H.

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By John G. Pfeifer

Religion Columnist

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